ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency has set up a special team to hunt human traffickers after the country's parliament ordered action following a shipwreck in Greece that killed nearly 80 migrants, with more than 500 others from the Middle East and South Asia still missing.
Authorities continued to search on Saturday for victims and survivors of a trawler that sank off the coast of Greece on Wednesday with as many as 750 migrants on board, according to Greek authorities.
A survivor of latest tragical shipwreck looks out from a bus that will transfer him to Athens with other migrants and refugees at the port of Kalamata, Greece, on June 16, 2023. (InTime News via AP)
The rescue operation is taking place in rough seas, with near gale-force winds, and in some of the Mediterranean Sea's deepest waters at over 5,000 meters (3 miles). To date, 104 survivors have been rescued and 78 bodies have been recovered.
The trawler carried as many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan. No survivors or bodies have been found since the day of the accident.
The FIA, while setting up a team of officials to hunt the traffickers, on Saturday urged the Pakistani people to share any information they might have on the perpetrators and facilitators of the "horrific" shipwreck in Greece.
"The names of the citizens sharing the information will be kept strictly confidential," the agency said in a Twitter post, sharing contact details of officials tasked with tracking down the human traffickers.
The development came hours after Pakistan's parliament directed authorities to take action against the human smugglers.
“I think it’s a horrific act to put innocent people in such a situation after luring them with promises of going abroad illegally,” Raja Pervez Ashraf, speaker of the National Assembly, said during a session of the lower house of parliament.
“I would like the government to take immediate notice of this and take action. Those who are involved in this despicable trade [of human trafficking] should be given exemplary punishment.”
Separately, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also extended his sympathies to the families of those dead or missing in the boat accident.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed that twelve Pakistani nationals were among survivors of the massive shipwreck, with the country’s embassy in Athens seeking DNA samples of relatives to verify the number and identity of Pakistanis who had lost their lives in the tragedy.
According to the United Nations, nearly 1,000 migrants have either died or gone missing while trying to reach the European shores in rickety boats this year.
In January, the Foreign Office also confirmed that a total of nine Pakistani citizens had lost their lives in two separate shipwrecks in Italy and Libya. å
